Do you just get back the same old potato at harvest time?
My mother had a bag of sprouting potatoes so I just took them all and planted them. I knew I should probably cut them up into eye sections but I had little faith that something that grew under a cupboard was going to survive outside in the spring sunlight for very long. Well, silly me! They're the best growing things in the entire garden. I have some beautiful healthy looking leaves/vines coming up now.
Will I just get back the same old potato or will some little potatoes magically appear below ground? How does this whole thing work, exactly?
Thx.
Giselle
What happens if you just put whole potatoes in the ground?
You'll probably get lots of little potatoes, but not as many as if you'd divided the tuber and given the new plants more room to spread out.
Be sure to hill up more soil around the stems of the plants as they grow to keep the sun off the new potatoes, lest they turn green and toxic.
If you plant the whole Irish potato ( Solanum tuberosum), a dominant plant will emerge. As that plant grows and matures, new tubers will form along the stem. Most of the energy of the old potato will be used to start the new plant, it may remain in whole or part but is no longer usable. Most folks cut thier potatoes into pieces before planting, so that you get multiple plants from one potato.
Thanks! At least there will be some profit/outcome from this random planting. Next year I'll do it right. :)
Giselle
ScotDeerie, trying something "new" is the best thing about gardening. Over the years, I've learned most of what I know from "trial and error." Last fall I set some garlic cloves from ones sprouting in the bin - in a few weeks, I'll know whether or not that was a good idea. Right now the plants are nearly as tall as I am (5'8")
One thing I am sure of - you will get something from those lovely potato plants! They will flower, and after awhile longer, the plants will begin to die away - then you can harvest your spuds.
Farmerdill was right. We tried planting the whole spuds last year and the harvest was sparse. . .back to cutting up the potato!
Speaking of potatos. I planted some for the first time the way I usually do new things in the garden. I put them in the ground and watched what happened. I asked my daughter to cut the potatos up and she cut the pieces very small with an eye each. Any way they went in the ground March? maybe early April. They grew... flowered etc. and then last week or two I started looking/digging around for few early taters to eat.... but I hardly found any... one or two per plant.
So I did something wrong. But thats okay. There was plenty of water this spring.. maybe more/different fertilizer. Maybe they should have been planted deeper. My question to the more experienced growers is is it too late to try again? I still have some of the seed potatoes left. Or is it too late? I am of course hoping it isn't.
Thanks in advance.
Helen
By the way.. the few taters I did get to eat were delicious. yum... I want more. :-)
Helen,
Once you plant them and they begin growing, you have to cover them up more and more. About every 6-8 inches of growth cover up about 6 inches of them with dirt, straw, whatever material you have. Burying the seed and then just letting them grow does not give sufficient stem under the ground to grow many potatoes.
It's probably too late to plant right now. Maybe wait till the summer begins to pass and plant a fall crop.
Shoot, I would go ahead and plant what you have left. Last year I planted fingerling potatoes 6/21/09 and they were fine. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
DDDAL,
Thanks for the boost. I think I will just plant them. If nothing else I will learn again what not to do!! :-)
Qinx - I will take your advise as well and plant them deeper and cover the stems as they grow. Thanks.
Helen
Normal method on this side of the pond is to "chit" your spuds about four or five weeks before planting out time. If there are a lot of eyes we rub out with the thumb all but three or four. We then stand the spuds in a light spot indoors at about room temperature. (NB: we like our rooms rather cooler than you do!) We plant them about four inches deep when the sprouts are about 1-2 inches long. A foot apart for earlies and fifteen inches for maincrop, in rows respectively two feet and two feet six inches apart. Plenty of manure dug in beforehand helps. We earth them up as they grow to form ridges. Water copiously when the new tubers are marble size.
The only reason for cutting them up is economy. My Dad used to do it in wartime when spuds (and money) were scarce. Commercial growers don't cut them up. The old tuber provides a reserve of food to get the new growth off to good start.
When I lived in England (for seventy years, up to three years ago) our biggest enemies were blight, keel slugs and wireworm. Blight has become so bad over the past few years that many amateur growers have given up maincrops altogether.
Blight is a problem, many gardeners are using straw, mushroom soil, or compost as a growing medium. I am growing mine in large containers this year with a mix of straw and potting mix. I cut mine power with wood ash a lay over night to reduce rot, because my GD did. I plant in 4-6"s of mix and add straw and mix as they grow, quite well this year.
Holly's Ric
We traditionally plant about St. Patties Day here to protect emerging plants from frost. Within 4-6 weeks, adding 4-6"s at a time, my containers were full, and the potatoes were in flower. You must cover any tubers on or near the surface to prevent sunburn or greening of the skin, which is not edible and has to be removed. I'm hoping for a good results. I have great plants and if production is good, I'll double or triple the effort.
Holly's Ric
There is a whole thread on container growing potatoes and growing under straw. I fond the one about straw and will look for the other.http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/937306/
Mine in flower. Holly's Ric
patgeorge - thank you for the detailed directions. I all makes good sense.
Thanks to everyone. I know a ton more about growing potatoes. :-)
I did put my left over seed potatoes in the ground several days ago. I will hope for the best. If the results are interesting I will add another post.
Helen
I got my first "new potatoes" from my plants today. What FUN! And YUM! Next year I'll do it right and get even more. :)
Giselle
It really is worth it when it works!
Haha I would have cut mine, but I didn't have time. We had them sprouting over the winter in a giant container (the big plastic things, we just dumped them in like a root cellar), and by the time I got to them this spring, they were wearing foot-long roots!
So, being silly and lazy and wanting to give it a shot, I just put them into the ground in the new back yard.
I have gone out a few times to dig up some more dirt (we don't have good soil, we have _dirt_) and cover the stems a bit. I've already seen some little potatoes from them.
As Dill once told me... you'd be _amazed_ what nature will do if you just let her do her job.
Sure, you'll get more produce if you cut em - you'll get more if you do a lot of things. But you can still get potatoes from a few whole potatoes. :D
The kids love it. My boys are growing things from seed and tubers, and are amazed at how food can multiply. *laugh*
In south Texas we plant mid August using whole potatoes because they don't rot as easily. For later plantings when the soil is cooler we can use cut potatoes but I prefer to use whole small potatoes.
Patgeorge, I sprout my potatoes before planting too. I use paper egg cartons to hold them upright while they're sprouting. I put them outside though, since we don't have freezing weather. (I'm in Minnesota right now, it is soooooo cold. It was 50 this morning. Feels like January in south Texas).
Awww, it ain't that bad. We can always put a light jacket on if need be. When it's 100+ you can't take off enough stuff!
They are saying the fish are easier to catch this summer because the lakes aren't as warm as normal. There's always a good to everything.
Is this Global warming by the way ?
We've been digging our potatoes for a month now. Yukon Golds I dug this morning are getting huge. Some are 4" diameter. Lots under a hill, so looking like big crop.
Bernie
Disappointingly, the potatoes I had planted already sprouted are doing very badly, while the others are flourishing and flowering.
The left over seed potatoes I planted July 5th are growing fast. I didn't cut them at all. I am watering a lot and used plenty of MG. I hope to get some taters!
By the way, can I use pine bark mulch to mound up over the plants? I don't have any straw.
Thanks.
Helen
Bernie, we've been laughing about the global warming in MN! It is warmer today.
It was hot here today!